Dark As A Dungeon (Ryan's Fancy) MIDI, video

Well, the tough dirty miner works hard for his pay,
He works through the night and most of the day;
But there's no one works harder
way down in the mine,
Then Billy the pit horse, a slave to the mine.

It's dark as a dungeon, it's damp as the dew,
Where the dangers are doubled
and the pleasures are few;
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines,
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.

Well, come all you young fellows,
your fortunes ye seek,
Don't bury yourselves in the mine so deep;
It gets into your body and it creeps to your soul,
Till the blood in your veins goes as black as the coal.

It's dark as a dungeon, it's damp as the dew,
Where the dangers are doubled
and the pleasures are few;
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines,
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.

It's dark as a dungeon, it's damp as the dew,
Where the dangers are doubled
and the pleasures are few;
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines,
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.

####.... Merle Travis [1917-1983] (Capitol Records, 1947) ....####

This arrangement by Ryan's Fancy (From the Ryan's Fancy CBC Television Series on location at St Lawrence, NL)

Courtesy of the Museum Association of Newfoundland and Labrador:
St Lawrence is located on the southeast coast of the Burin Peninsula. After a devastating tidal wave in 1929, the Great Depression, and the collapse of the salt fish trade, many in St Lawrence moved away. In 1931, an American entrepreneur gave the people of St Lawrence some hope when he visited the town to inspect the fluorspar deposits he had purchased from a St John's businessman in 1929. Fluorspar is a non-metallic ore which, depending on the proportion of its components, is used in the manufacture of such things as aluminum, glass, and the refrigerant freon. At the time of its discovery the St Lawrence deposit was described as the largest in North America. In 1933, the men of the area, eager for the promise of steady, paying work, began the arduous task of extracting and shipping the ore for Seibert's company, the St Lawrence Corporation of Newfoundland (often called simply "the Corporation"). By 1937, the American Newfoundland Fluorspar Company was also operating at St Lawrence. In 1939 it was sold to the Aluminum Company of Canada (ALCAN), which formed the Newfoundland Fluorspar Company (Newfluor). The mining and the town continued to be prosperous through the Second World War. By the 1970s, however, there was much competition from other sources and the mining operation took a downturn. ALCAN closed down operations completely in 1978. Shafts were sealed, buildings leveled, and much of the physical evidence of the town's mining heritage was eradicated.